Tuition fees at the University of Cape Town: 1923–2020
Abstract
Tuition fees at South African universities have been increasingly contested in recent years. In this article, we analyse trends in tuition fees for five degrees offered by the University of Cape Town (UCT) from 1923 to 2020. Data were collected from UCT’s handbooks and calendars. Adjusting for inflation, we found that, on average, tuition fees increased nearly 400 per cent from 1923 to 2020. Tuition fees increased only marginally between 1923 and 1970, but increased almost 300 per cent, on average, from 1970 to 2020. We also estimated the affordability of tuition fees between 1946 and 2019. Affordability considers both changes in tuition fees and changes in average income, approximated by per capita GDP. Between 1946 and the early 1980s, tuition at UCT became relatively more affordable as the growth in average income generally exceeded the growth in tuition fees. Post-1980, the combination of modest economic growth and rapid increases in tuition fees has made university education at UCT substantially less affordable. The percentage of per capita GDP required to study at UCT doubled between the early 1980s and 2019.
References
Beale, Mary A. 1998. “Apartheid and university education, 1948‒1970.” Doctoral dissertation. University of the Witwatersrand. http://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10539/20610/ Beale%20Mary%20Alice._Apartheid%20and%20university%20educati_001.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y (Accessed 27 July 2020).
Bergheim, Stefan. 2005. Human Capital is the Key to Growth ‒ Success Stories and Policies for 2020. Deutsche Bank Research Current Issues Working Paper. http://dwyered.tripod.com/ sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/db_human_capital.pdf (accessed 27 July 2020).
Blecher, Evan, Alex Liber, Corné van Walbeek, and Laura Rossouw. 2018. “An international analysis of the price and affordability of beer.” PloS ONE 13(12). https://doi.org/10.1371/ journal.pone.0208831.
Blecher, Evan and Corné van Walbeek. 2009. “Cigarette affordability trends: An update and some methodological comments.” Tobacco Control 18(3): 167‒175. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1136/tc.2008.026682.
Branson, Nicola and Murray Leibbrandt. 2013. “Educational Attainment and Labour Market Outcomes in South Africa, 1994‒2010.” OECD Economics Department Working Papers No. 1022. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/ economics/educational-attainment-and-labour-market-outcomes-in-south-africa-1994-2010_ 5k4c0vvbvv0q-en (Accessed 27 July 2020).
Branson, Nicola, Murray Leibbrandt, and Tina L. Zuze. 2009. “What are the returns for tertiary education and who benefits?” In Responding to the Educational Needs of Post-School Youth, ed. Nico Cloete. Wynberg: Centre for Higher Education Transformation.
Calitz, Estian and Johan Fourie. 2016. “The Historically High Cost of Tertiary Education in South Africa.” Politikon 43(1): 149‒154. https://doi.org/10.1080/02589346.2016.1155790.
Department of Education. 2002‒2006. Education Statistics in South Africa at a Glance. Pretoria: Government Printer.
De Villiers, Pierre and Gert Steyn. 2006. “Income and expenditure trends of higher education institutions in South Africa: 1986‒2003.” Perspectives in Education 24(2): 35‒48. https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC87376.
Henshaw, Peter J. 1996. “Britain, South Africa and the Sterling Area: Gold production, Capital Investment and Agricultural Markets: 1931‒1961.” The Historical Journal 39(1): 197‒223. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2639946.
Kwasi-Agyeman, Fredua, Patrício Langa, and Patrick Swanzy. 2020. “Higher Education Funding and Student Access in the Global South.” Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education 12(Fall): 83‒98.
Ma, Jennifer, Matea Pender, and Carmello Libassi. 2020. Trends in College Pricing and Student Aid 2020. New York: College Board. https://research.collegeboard.org/pdf/trends-college-pricing-student-aid-2020.pdf.
Motala, Shireen and Veerle Dieltiens. 2010. Educational access in South Africa: Country research summary. Consortium for Research on Educational Access, Transitions and Equity. University of the Witwatersrand Education Policy Unit. http://www.create-rpc.org/pdf_ documents/South_Africa_Country_Research_Summary.pdf (Accessed 27 July 2020).
National Treasury. 1993. Budget Review. Pretoria: Government Printer. http://www.treasury.gov.za/ documents/national%20budget/Budget%20Review%201993.pdf (Accessed 27 July 2020).
National Treasury. 1994. Budget Review. Pretoria: Government Printer. http://www.treasury.gov.za/ documents/national%20budget/Budget%20Review%201994.pdf (Accessed 27 July 2020).
National Treasury. 1995. Budget Review. Pretoria: Government Printer. http://www.treasury.gov.za/ documents/national%20budget/Budget%20Review%201995.pdf (Accessed 27 July 2020).
National Treasury. 2019. Budget Review. Pretoria: Government Printer. http://www.treasury.gov.za/ documents/national%20budget/2019/review/FullBR.pdf (Accessed 27 July 2020).
National Treasury. 2020. Budget Review. Pretoria: Government Printer. http://www.treasury.gov.za/ documents/national%20budget/2020/review/FullBR.pdf (Accessed 27 July 2020).
Phillips, Howard. 1993. The University of Cape Town 1918‒1948: The Formative Years. Cape Town: Jacana Media.
Pinheiro, Rómulo and Pundy Pundy. 2016. “Higher education and economic development in the OECD: Policy lessons for other countries and regions.” Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management 38(2): 150‒166. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360080X.2016.1150237 (Accessed 27 July 2020).
SARB see South African Reserve Bank.
South African Reserve Bank. 2020a. GDP per capita (current). https://www.resbank.co.za/ Research/Statistics/Pages/OnlineDownloadFacility.aspx (Accessed 15 July 2020).
South African Reserve Bank. 2020b. Statement of the monetary policy committee. Press Statement. https://www.resbank.co.za/Lists/News%20and%20Publications/Attachments/9946/Monetary%20Policy%20Statement%2021%20May%202020.pdf (Accessed 27 July 2020).
South African Reserve Bank. 2020c. Total expenditure ‒ Consolidated general government: Education of which: Tertiary education. https://www.resbank.co.za/Research/Statistics/Pages/ OnlineDownloadFacility.aspx (Accessed 22 April 2020).
South African Reserve Bank. 2020d. National government: Total expenditure. https://www.resbank.co.za/Research/Statistics/Pages/OnlineDownloadFacility.aspx (Accessed 25 April 2020).
Statistics South Africa. 2020. CPI History. http://www.statssa.gov.za/ publications/P0141/CPIHistory.pdf? (Accessed 26 February 2020).
Teferra, Damtew and Phillip Altbachl. 2004. “African higher education: Challenges for the 21st century.” Higher Education 47(1): 21–50. 10.1023/B:HIGH.0000009822.49980.30.
The Presidency. 2017. Report of the Commission of Inquiry into Higher Education and Training. Pretoria: The Presidency. https://www.justice.gov.za/commissions/feeshet/Fees CommissionReport-Full-20171113.pdf
UCT see University of Cape Town.
University of Cape Town. 1918. UCT Calendar 1918. Cape Town: UCT.
University of Cape Town. 1922. UCT Calendar 1922. Cape Town: UCT.
University of Cape Town. 1923. UCT Calendar 1923. Cape Town: UCT.
University of Cape Town. 1935. UCT Calendar 1935. Cape Town: UCT.
University of Cape Town. 2010. Annual Report 2010. Cape Town: UCT. http://www.staff.uct.ac.za/staff/finance/operations/annual-statements (Accessed 27 July 2020).
University of Cape Town. 2018. Annual Report 2018. Cape Town: UCT. http://www.staff.uct.ac.za/staff/finance/operations/annual-statements (Accessed 27 July 2020).
Visser, Wessel. 2004. Shifting RDP into GEAR: The ANC government’s dilemma in providing an equitable system of social security for the “new” South Africa. Paper presented at 40th ITH Linzer Konferenz (Vol. 17). http://academic.sun.ac.za/history/downloads/visser/rdp_into_ gear.pdf (Accessed 27 July 2020).
Wangenge-Ouma, Gerald. 2012. “Tuition Fees and the Challenge of Making Higher Education a Popular Commodity in South Africa.” Higher Education 64(6): 831‒844. 10.1007/s10734-012-9531-6.
Wangenge-Ouma, Gerald and Nico Cloete. 2008. “Financing higher education in South Africa: Public funding, non-government revenue and tuition fees.” South Africa Journal of Higher Education 22(4): 906‒919. https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC37467.
Zhang, Qilong, Ning Kang, and Ruth Barnes. 2016. “A Systematic Literature Review of Funding for Higher Education Institutions in Developed Countries.” Front Educ China 11(4): 519–542. 10.1007/BF03397139.
Copyright (c) 2021 Katherine Davidson, Corné van Walbeek, Nicole Vellios
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
This journal is an open access journal, and the authors and journal should be properly acknowledged, when works are cited.
Authors, copyright holders, may use the publishers version for teaching purposes, in books, theses, dissertations, conferences and conference papers.
A copy of the authors' publishers version may also be hosted on the following websites:
- Non-commercial personal homepage or blog.
- Institutional webpage.
- Authors Institutional Repository.
The following notice should accompany such a posting on the website: This is an electronic version of an article published in SAJHE, Volume XXX, number XXX, pages XXX “XXX", DOI. Authors should also supply a hyperlink to the original paper or indicate where the original paper (http://www.journals.ac.za/index.php/SAJHE) may be found.
Authors publishers version, affiliated with the Stellenbosch University will be automatically deposited in the University Institutional Repository SUNScholar.
Articles as a whole, may not be re-published with another journal.
The following license applies:
Attribution CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
